


Full Circle (aka Die Hard High)

by WordsandChocolate



Category: Original Work
Genre: Ass-Kicking, Canon-Typical Violence, Computers, F/M, Girls In Charge, Guns, Hacking, High School, Hostage Situations, Knives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-10
Updated: 2014-10-13
Packaged: 2018-02-20 14:35:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2432360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordsandChocolate/pseuds/WordsandChocolate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kat and Sarah have their school taken hostage and decide it's time to step up and kick ass. Toy Soldiers meet Die Hard, with a bunch of sass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story I wrote when I was 17, waaaay back in 1995. I still think it's fun, so I thought I'd share it with you guys. The computer stuff is a bit dated, but ah well. Enjoy :) I haven't changed anything, 'cos it's like a little snapshot of me at 17.

The brightly patterned folder sat awkwardly under my arm. I moved my arm slightly, trying to keep my English novel from sliding off the top of the folder. The book slid despite my efforts, but before it hit the carpet an arm reached out and caught it. 

"Thanks Sarah" I said, putting the novel in a safer spot. 

Sarah grinned, grey eyes sparkling.

"Now you owe me one."   

I pretended to glare at my best friend.

"So that was your motivation!"  I said, raising my eyes to the ceiling and adopting a long suffering tone.  "That's all I'm good for, I'm just here so people can take advantage of my kind and giving nature!" 

Sarah laughed, familiar with my bantering tone.

"Yep! Though I'm not too sure about the kind and giving part!" 

I gasped with mock-disbelief, and put my hand melodramatically to my throat.

"You doubt my word?!" 

"Anyone with a shred of common sense should!" retorted Sarah. 

We bantered easily as we headed for the door, comfortable in each other's company.

The bell had just gone for the end of lunchtime but we were in no hurry as we were in the library, which doesn't have a PESAC terminal. One of our friends, Gillian, pushed past us and hurried out the doorway of the room that was our senior study, a room only for us Year 12’s. 

"Better get a move on!" she called to us over her shoulder. "Only five minutes before the computer declares truant!" 

"We're in the library!" I called back, by way of explanation. She nodded and kept going, no time to talk. 

Thank goodness the teachers decided not to give the library a PESAC terminal. The computers controlled all the other stuff, but no PESAC terminal meant no way of registering which students had entered and at what time. It would have been too inconvenient as it wasn't a classroom and had people coming in and out all the time. I noticed Sarah putting something back in the pocket of her uniform. I looked at her quizzically. 

"My card" she said sheepishly. "I forgot we were going to the library." 

I laughed at her and arranged my face into a haughty expression.

"My Personalised Electronic Student Access Card is at this moment residing in my jacket pocket, secure in the knowledge that it will not be needing to register my punctual presence in the classroom until after English" I said in a lofty tone. 

"I swoon in the presence of your superior intellect, O Mighty One" Sarah grinned, making a sweeping bow. 

I couldn't keep a straight face any longer and cracked up.

We liked to muck around with words, as you may have noticed. It's probably all the medieval and fantasy books we read. Sarah opened the door and gestured for me to go through. I walked through the doorway and a boy with close shaven brown hair and deep brown eyes moved out behind me. 

"Late for English too Sam?" I smiled, Sarah falling into place on my right side. 

We dawdled along under the covered walkway that led from the senior study to the library. It was a sunny day with a slight chill wind. Students with their schoolbags hung casually over their shoulders walked quickly in chattering groups to their next class. 

"Yeah" Sam answered, moving to my left side. 

School captain, a guy of few words, he was one of the four students -and only boy- in our English class. Sarah and I had been trying to get to know him better, realising that it wasn't long before we would all leave school and there were heaps of people we had never got to know. He wanted to join the army when he left school. He knew all about guns, was smart, a gifted artist, a great athlete and was liked by everyone in our year. He was pretty quiet and a little on the serious side, but had an infectious laugh and an embarrassed grin when he was being teased. 

"How do you like studying Cosi?"  I asked. 

We were studying this play for English. 

"It's pretty good, better than the old-fashioned stuff." He grinned. "And that character Doug is a legend." 

"Just because he burnt those cats you like him!" I chided, smiling to show I wasn't serious. 

Well it's environmentally friendly" he joked. "The wildlife would be safe with the cats dead!" 

"Well said!" grinned Sarah. 

Sarah and Sam were both dog people, I was a cat person, and Sarah loved baiting me on the subject. Looked like Sam was getting in on the act too. We moved up the walkway and headed for the ramp that led into the library. 

G-block -a two storey block of classrooms- was across from us and luckily Sam happened to glance toward the entrance to the stairs leading up to the second storey. He was the one who saw the black-haired man standing there, with a sky-blue shirt and black jeans, ignoring the students that stopped still and stared at him in shock.  He saw the man calmly lift up his semi-automatic and slip off the safety catch.        

I drew breath to utter a smart retort to the cat joke and had it knocked out of me as Sam dropped his folder, grabbed me and shoved me to the ground. My folder dropped from my hands as I grabbed Sarah's arm for balance but ended up pulling her down with me. 

"What did you..." I began indignantly but broke off as the sound of gunfire cracked across the air, sounding strangely unreal and out of place on this sunny afternoon. 

I caught my breath in horror and disbelief as the guy stood there and mowed down students who had just been laughing and chattering a few seconds ago. Some fell silently, others screamed and everywhere was blood. They were kids I knew, kids I talked to. I almost stopped breathing as I remembered my younger brothers and I frantically looked for them, my eyes flicking over slumped bodies. They weren't there, and I could breathe again.  

"They're only little kids" I choked, tears running down my face. 

I could hear Sarah trying to keep back sobs. 

Sam's face was tight and his mouth quivered as he whispered to me;

"If we stay here we're going to die. We've got to get to some cover!" 

He was right. Once the guy had finished with the students who were still standing, he would realise that some who were on the ground weren't dead at all. I tried to get my brain to work, pushing back the images of what I was seeing to deal with later. Right now we had to survive. I looked towards the library, which we were about two metres from, and realised that its doors were slowly closing. I looked around. If we didn't get inside, we would be out in the open with no protection. 

"Let's make a break for the library" I whispered to Sam and Sarah. 

They both nodded, faces grim.

"Ready...go!" 

Bullets whizzed around us, cracking into the library walls as we raced to the doors. I don’t know why they didn't hit us. God was protecting us I guess. Sarah got in first, I sprinted in close behind her and Sam slipped through the crack as the doors firmly shut and locked. 

We stood in the library foyer, trembling with shock and adrenalin. As soon as I could, I moved to the computer terminal, not a PESAC one, just a normal one set in the wall. It looked like something you would have on Star Trek, and it sure copped a few jokes when they were first installed. I smiled to myself, remembering the time when Sarah and I had pretended we were on the U.S.S. Enterprise. We had stood in the library foyer in front of the terminal, pretending it was the ship's main computer. We had half the juniors convinced we were crazy, and the other half wanting to join in. 

I accessed the main system, using a teacher access code that my computer genius brother had picked up from somewhere. I sure could use him right now. He was the computer buff, not me. I just knew the basic theory, not the little hacker tricks and ways of dodging the system like he did. I hoped he was all right. 

"The computers have shut the doors" I said. 

Okay, so maybe that wasn't a big revelation, but it did rule out the chance that a teacher had come and shut it manually. 

"At least teachers have some brains" Sarah said, trying to smile. 

Sam didn't.

"How do you know it’s the teachers?" he asked quietly. "What if that guy has friends?" 

"You mean they might have control of the computers?" Sarah said, frowning.  

"Couldn't it just be a Port Arthur type thing?" I suggested, not really wanting to discuss what was going on outside but my feelings would have to wait until later. "You know, a lone gunman with a grudge against society?" 

"Why would they shut the doors?" Sarah said, backing me up. "It seems to me like the teachers have shut them to protect the students." 

Sam shrugged, not convinced.

"It's just a feeling I have, that's all. If the teachers have shut them then where are they?" 

We looked around. The library was quiet. We could see no one. I turned back to the terminal and started searching through programs. 

"Well whoever's shut them, has overridden the computer and is controlling it manually." 

I pressed a few keys and brought up a map of the school. I gestured for Sam and Sarah to come over. 

"All the other classrooms have been shut too" I said, pointing to the blue dots. 

"But we were late to English" Sarah interjected. "The other classrooms could have already shut. The guy only caught the late students..." Her voice shook a little, remembering. 

Sam nodded in agreement.

"It doesn't really support anyone's theory" he said. 

I keyed in a few commands, and brought up a more detailed map.

"This map shows that all the classroom doors have been shut manually through the computer." 

"How can they be shut manually through the computer?  I thought manual meant that computers weren't used." asked Sam. 

Obviously he didn't know much about computers. 

"The computer system set up for the school has been overridden." I explained patiently. "The doors no longer open and close according to the program, the people controlling the computer network decide what the computer does." 

He nodded.

"I get it." 

"They must have shut at the same time the library doors did." I continued. "The only way to override the network like that is if it was controlled from the main network file server." 

"Then the only way to find out who is controlling the ‘master computer’ is to go and see for ourselves" said Sarah. 

"Where is it?" asked Sam. 

"You know the head science teacher's office, next to the art room?" I asked him. 

"Yep." 

"Well, high up on the left wall of her office, with a ladder leading up to it, is a storeroom. The master computer is in there." 

Now before you get totally confused as to where everything is in the school is, I'll draw you a map.

 

Now there’s no excuse for getting lost. 

I was getting a bit nervous, standing around in the foyer. The library doors were glass, and though the posters that covered one of the door partitions hid us, I still felt very out in the open. 

“What’s the guy doing?” I asked nervously. 

Sarah went over and peered through the glass.

“He’s standing there, talking into a two way radio” she answered. 

“That proves my theory!” Sam said. “He’s got other guys around!” 

“It still doesn’t tell us whether they’re in the school or not” Sarah pointed out. 

Before they got into a full-scale argument, I interrupted. 

“Look you guys, I think we should stop just standing around and do something. Even if Sam’s theory is right, it doesn’t matter where the other guys are, we’ll still have to keep an eye out for them. I vote we do what Sarah said, go find the master computer, and see who’s in control.” 

Sam looked a bit shocked. At school I’m perceived as a quiet person, he wasn’t used to me taking charge. 

But Sarah knew what I was really like and backed me up now as she usually did.

“I’m with Kat.” 

“But what can we do?” Sam said. “We’re only schoolkids. You saw what that guy did to those other students.” 

“Well we just can’t leave” I argued. “I’ve got two brothers still here, I can’t let anything happen to them.” 

“And I’ve got a sister trapped here” Sam retorted. “Look, I agree with you that we can’t leave, but we’re not ideal heroes, we don’t have guns and bubble-gum that blows up. I mean, what if something happened to you two?” 

I realised Sam would like to be a hero, but was worried about putting us girls in danger. Sarah realised that too, and gave me a meaningful glance. I was pretty sure I could win him over though. 

“I realise that you’re worried about us Sam, but we can take care of ourselves. And how do you know we’re not ideal heroes, we’ve never tried it before.” 

“We mightn’t have guns” Sarah said, “But we do have things we can use. We’ve got human resources.” 

“What?” said Sam. 

I grinned at Sarah, recognising jargon from our Life Management classes.

“Human resources” Sarah continued, “Like courage, determination, energy...” 

She pointed to Sam.

“We’ve got you. You know about guns, you could use one if we found one, you know a bit of army training, strategy, you’re quick to act as we just saw outside, you’re pretty fit...” 

I smiled to myself. Sarah was doing the big suck-up job.

“And good-looking” I said wickedly, grinning as Sam blushed. “But unless we run into any lady bad guys you probably won’t need to use it.” 

Sarah turned to me.

“You’re a smart aleck with a big mouth” she grinned, “But I wouldn’t recommend using that particular resource against the bad guys.” 

“And I was so looking forward to it” I sighed. 

“You’re a computer genius” Sarah continued. 

I buffed my fingernails on my jacket and pretended to look superior. 

“You know a bit of Tae Kwon Do and self-defence...” 

“And you are mixture of us both” I interrupted. “A mongrel, you might say.” 

I quickly stepped back laughing as Sarah tried to swipe me.

“Seriously though, you also know a bit of army training from trying to join the airforce, you know a bit about computers, I wouldn’t say you’re fit, but you’re definitely fitter than me...” 

“That’s not saying much” Sarah grinned. 

“And we’re all smart, quick-thinking and resourceful” Sam finished. “You made your point.” 

“Does that mean you agree to go find the master computer?” Sarah asked. 

“Yeah, I guess I’d feel pretty useless if I didn’t try to do anything” Sam admitted. 

“There is logic to it” I said. “Look at it this way, if the teachers are controlling it, we can help them. We’ve seen one of the bad guys, we saw what he did. They would have called the police and we can help them too. If the bad guys have control, we can get descriptions of them, maybe find out why they are doing this. Not all computers in the school are connected to the network, we can use one to call the police web site.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way” Sam said. 

“And if we find any kids still wandering around the school, we can help them too, get them somewhere safe” Sarah added. 

Having a purpose really raised our spirits. It was so much better being able to do something, rather than wait around like sitting ducks. From the look on the faces of Sam and Sarah, they were thinking the same thing. 

“Before we go, I have something I have to say.” 

“That’s so out of character for you!” Sarah joked. 

I frowned at her.

“I’m being serious this time. We’ve got to think of ourselves as a team. Everyone works together and helps everyone else. No protecting the girls Sam, we’re all capable. We have to be on our toes the whole time.” 

They nodded. 

“I have got something else we can use” Sarah said. 

She pulled a flick-knife out of her jacket pocket. Sam looked shocked (us girls are so full of surprises) but I wasn’t. I knew Sarah. 

“You took a knife to school!” Sam exclaimed. 

“Not intentionally, it was still in my pocket from the other day and I forgot about it.” 

“From the other day...?” 

“I wouldn’t ask if I were you” I said to Sam. 

He still looked a bit worried.

“Don’t you think I should have it or something?” 

Sarah looked at him with raised eyebrows.

“I’m quite capable of using a knife Sam.” 

“Yeah, on me you are” I said wryly.  

One lunchtime Sarah was using a knife to cut up her apple, and decided to pretend to throw it at me. The knife had other ideas however, and flew out of her hand straight towards my head. Luckily as she was at the top of the stairs, and I was at the bottom. I discovered that my reflexes worked quite well. It gave our group something to talk about for a few days anyway. 

“I need my practice” Sarah grinned. 

I’m sure Sam thought by now that we were crazy. Oh well, maybe he’ll humour us. I looked through the door outside. The sky-blue guy (Sarah and I have started thinking of him like that) was gone. I wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing but it made me nervous. 

“I think we should go” I said. 

“Where?” asked Sarah. “Can you open the doors?” 

“Maybe, but if the bad guys are operating the network they’ll detect it, and I don’t want to make them suspicious.” 

“Would they have detected you on the terminal you just used?” said Sam. 

“They could have, but I used a teacher’s access code to log on, so they won’t know it’s me.” 

All the students had an access code when logging onto network terminals that uniquely identified each student. But only teachers were allowed into certain parts of the system, so my brother ‘acquired’ a teacher’s access code and told it to me. 

“But won’t that dob the teacher in?” asked Sarah. 

“No, its the access code of a teacher who recently transferred, and they haven’t got round to deleting it. So even if they know who the teacher is, they can’t hurt them.” 

“Whose access code is it?” Sam asked curiously. 

“Now that would be telling” I laughed. “I don’t reveal my secrets.” 

“We still don’t know how to get out of here” said Sarah. 

“I do” I smiled. 

“Well get on with it then,” Sarah said impatiently. 

“There is one door in the library that isn’t controlled by computer, so we won’t be detected when we leave.” 

Sarah’s eyes lit up.

“You mean that little one that leads out onto the path behind the senior study?” 

I nodded.

It will probably be locked though.” 

Sarah held up her knife.

“No problems. I’ve got a few gadgets in here that will take care of it.” 

“I’ve got a new resource to add to your personal stockpile Sarah.” I laughed. “Cat burglar!” 

Sarah looked offended.

“Cat burglar! I beg your pardon!” 

I laughed.

“Shut up and let’s get on with it.” 

We sneaked out of the library foyer. It was deadly quiet (unfortunate choice of words there, sorry).  Sam was right, there were no teachers around at all, or students. I glanced over at him, and realised he was in his element. He moved silently with the grace of a cat (no argument on this one Sarah, dogs are not graceful), each muscle full of controlled tension. We passed by the door of the careers room, and I signalled a stop. 

“Can you hear voices behind that door?” I whispered. 

They stopped and listened. 

“Yep, but I can’t tell whether they’re students or not” Sarah answered. 

“Well we can’t stop.” said Sam. “There may be other guys in there, and we can’t afford to get captured.” 

We nodded in agreement, and moved silently on. Maybe that sounds a bit callous, but we couldn’t afford tender feelings at the moment. If bad guys were in there, we wouldn’t be helping the students in there by getting captured. I knew how hard that was to say for Sam. Rose, the other girl in our English class was probably in that room, and he was very close friends with her. 

We reached the door. It was a skinny glass door, never used so it hadn’t been computerised. Thank goodness. Sarah knelt down and pulled out a little gadget from her knife. Sam and I looked nervously around while she worked on the door. 

“This silence is really getting on my nerves” I muttered. 

“I know what you mean” he answered. “You expect the scary music to come on any second.” 

“The heroes never seem to hear it though,” I said wryly. 

Suddenly a thunderous (or so it seemed to us) squeak sounded behind us. We both jumped and Sam swung around with hands clenched to find Sarah looking at us with amusement. 

“Relax, it’s just the door. I’ve got it open.”  

It was a tight fit, but we managed to squeeze through. We were out in the open. The senior study that Sarah and I had walked out of so light-heartedly this afternoon stood behind us. It was only this afternoon that the massacre happened, but it felt like years. I wished I was back in the library, it seemed much safer. It was so much easier to stay there and do nothing. It was just typical that this would happen in uncomfortable school uniforms, and not even on a sports day. 

“I’m glad I didn’t wear a skirt today” I whispered to Sarah. 

“I was thinking the same thing” she answered. 

I crept on ahead. Sarah and Sam were going back to the senior study to see if there was anything in there we could use. I had volunteered for the first shift of scout duty, which meant I went ahead and checked out the territory to see if it was safe.

Our plan was to sneak behind B-block and to the stairs at the other end, and up them to the head science teacher’s room. I sneaked along the walkway between B-block and J-block, keeping to the right wall. I was so intent on whether there was anyone on the left as I got to the corner of J-block that I didn’t bother to look to my right, as there were only paddocks and the car park there. Big mistake.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucas joins the group. Recon time.

My stomach jolted abruptly up to my throat as a strong arm snaked around my waist, pinning my arms to my sides. A hand clamped over my mouth, muffling my scream. 

I did the first thing that my self-defence teacher told us never to do. I froze. But even as I froze, I was telling my brain to start thinking. What was the first thing I should do? I was about to stamp my foot down upon my captor’s instep when I was suddenly released. I whirled around and found myself staring into the shocked face of Lucas Reyne. 

Lucas Reyne was a guy also in my year, and a good friend of Sam. He was stocky, strong, and loved showing off his muscles (his nickname was ‘flex’). He did boxing and football, and most of the junior girls were madly in love with him. 

He thought he was God’s gift to women, and though Sarah and I pretended to despise him, we secretly liked him. One look at him though, and you couldn’t blame us. He was quite attractive, with his black hair, dark eyes, tanned skin and sensual lips - and was completely aware of the fact that he had an unsettling effect on women. 

Sarah and I were smart enough to realise that we were only attracted to him physically, his mind we could do without. I wasn’t saying he was dumb or anything, he was very smart- he did 3-Unit maths and chemistry- but his mind seemed to be on only one thing, if you know what I mean. 

The fact that Sarah and I seemed impervious to his charms fascinated him I think, especially with me. In junior years he used to ask me out continually and make other sexual propositions (he had no shame in those days) but I would always refuse him with some disdainful comment, as if he were beneath me. One day he went too far and pinched me on the butt as I was walking out of class. I whirled around (if only I had known Tae Kwon Do then!) burning with cold anger and threatened to knock his block off if he ever touched me again. He never did. He mostly ignored me once we reached senior years but every now and then I would catch him staring at me and I would blush furiously and look away. 

This was the first time I had ever seen his face without its smooth, assured smile. I was feeling pretty shaky. 

“What the hell were you trying to do?!” I exclaimed, trying to stop my voice from shaking. 

“I thought you were one of them” he shrugged, his face coming back under control and his usual smirk stealing back. 

“Yeah, well you were lucky you let go because I was just about to break your foot.” 

“A girl like you? Yeah sure.” he smirked. 

Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have done what I did. But I was still filled with shock and emotion, and I felt so angry when I saw that smirk, that “as if you could hurt me you’re just a girl and I’m the best” smirk. I just wanted to wipe it off his face. 

I shifted into right back stance, launching myself into a side kick. The heel of my right foot slammed into his stomach (but not too hard, I was just trying to teach him a lesson). The breath shot out of him with a surprised whoosh and he was knocked to the ground. I was really glad I hadn’t worn a skirt. I just stood there, my muscles trembling with adrenalin, and thinking that I probably shouldn’t have reacted like that, but it sure was satisfying- what was he going to do?

I don’t think Lucas knew how to react. He just lay there on the ground for a moment with a totally shocked look on his face, then pulled himself up into a sitting position, regaining control of his facial expression. I was still worried though, I couldn’t read his expression. 

“You crazy woman! What the hell did you do that for?!” he exclaimed. 

“Just proving a point” I said sweetly. 

Lucas got up and walked over to me. He looked amused.

“Got some cheek haven’t you?” 

“When provoked” I answered calmly, though I wasn’t feeling so calm. 

Suddenly he grasped hold of my upper arms, pulling me in towards him so our bodies were almost touching. I was acutely aware of how close his body was to me. Now I was the one who wasn’t sure how to react. 

“And how else are you provoked?” Lucas murmured, smirking. 

Luckily I didn’t have to work out how to react to his comment, for at that moment Sarah and Sam came racing around the corner. We jumped apart. Sarah gave me a “what on earth were you two up to?” look and I gave her back an “I’ll tell you later and there’s a good explanation” look. 

Sam gave me a strange look that I couldn’t interpret, as usual, and I didn’t know how Lucas was reacting because I was avoiding his gaze. I was blushing enough as it was anyway. 

“Lucas! What are you doing here?” Sam exclaimed.

I quelled Sarah with a look. I knew she was dying to make an embarrassing comment.

Lucas brought us up to date on his activities (no comments now!). Apparently he had gone down the street at lunchtime and had been late coming back. He entered the school through the teacher’s car park and saw from a distance what the sky-blue guy had done. I saw something flicker behind those dark eyes and realised that he may have feelings after all. He then skulked around the school, not really sure what to do... 

“And then I ...ah...met Kathryn.” he said, glancing quickly at me. 

Sarah stifled a laugh, turning it quickly into a cough when Lucas glanced at her. During Lucas’s monologue I had, in whispers, filled her in on what had happened when Lucas and I ‘met’.  I was wondering whether Lucas would say what had really happened, but I realised that his male ego would not tolerate a female getting the better of him, so he would not mention it. 

Sam filled Lucas in on what we had been up to (much more constructive things than him). He knew totally zilch about computers, so I was still the resident computer ‘genius’. Hey, that’s two things I’m better at than him! (Not that I’m keeping score or anything). 

“And what human resource does Lucas have to offer?” I whispered to Sarah. 

“He can charm his way out of any situation” she whispered back. 

Lucas gave us a filthy look, apparently thinking that all our whispering was about him. Well he was right! 

“So you’re going to find the master computer” Lucas summed up.

He flexed his muscles.

“Looks like you need some assistance.” 

“Depends on the kind of assistance” I retorted smartly. 

Lucas obviously wasn’t comfortable with me going out of ‘character’ and answering back. He looked at Sam, as if he had the last word. Sam put his hands out in mock protection. 

“Hey, don’t look at me. We’re a team, we all have to agree.” 

Sarah, with her usual tact, remedied the situation.

“You can join us if you shut up and don’t make any trouble. As Kat pointed out before, we’re all equal, which includes the girls, so no macho stuff Lucas.” 

Sam turned away trying to hide a smile. 

“Agreed?” I asked. 

“Whatever you say,” Lucas said smoothly, with a suggestive smile.  

That being settled, I noticed that Sarah and Sam were carrying some plastic bags. 

“What have you got?” I asked. 

Sarah emptied her bag. 

“Our PE gear?” 

“Sneakers are easier to run in” she said, holding up a pair. “Lucky we were supposed to have PE today.”

We all sat down and changed shoes. I glanced at Lucas’s feet. He saw me looking. 

“Already got sneakers” he grinned. “I think ahead.” 

I ignored him.

Sam had something else in his bag. 

“Rope” he said. 

Really talkative guy, isn’t he? 

“From where?” I asked. 

“Senior study” was the answer. 

I was about to question further when I saw his grin and realised he had been teasing me. Well that’s a first. 

“They were for an art sculpture” he explained. “I figured it could be useful.” 

Lucas grabbed the coil of rope and slung it round his shoulders. 

“Going for the part of Rambo, Lucas?” Sarah inquired sweetly. 

“You’ve got the brain for it” I agreed. 

“And the body” Lucas said, preening and deliberately ignoring the implications of our comments. 

Lucas recovers quickly, I’ll give him that. Well, enough fussing around. 

“Let’s go,” I said, starting to move away. 

Lucas caught hold of my arm. 

“Hang on a second” 

I turned and stared at him. He let go of my arm. 

“The plan is to go behind B-block and creep up the stairs, right?” 

“Your point is?” 

“What if they have a sentry outside the door? You’ll get a nasty shock if you come up the stairs and find yourselves looking into the barrel of a gun.” 

Damn. I hate it when he’s right. 

“So what’s your suggestion?” Sarah asked. 

“What if we creep up the music stairs? We’ll be further away and we can check out his movements and work out the best strategy.” 

I suppose boys have to be good for something. I didn’t realise Lucas actually had a brain- well not one for thinking about strategy anyway. Watching his face, which was full of excitement I had a sneaking feeling he was enjoying this. It probably seemed like a game to him, he hadn’t been in the middle of the sky-blue guy’s shooting spree like we had. Maybe I was being too hard on him. After all, he did think of the sentry. Just don’t expect me to be grateful. 

We did as Lucas suggested and moved quietly up the stairs. I saw the roll-a-door room on the second landing as we moved up. Its door was open. I kept it in mind, we may be able to use it later. We crouched on the top landing and peered cautiously around the corner. Sure enough, there was a sentry. We could see him at the other end of the walkway. We were on the second storey of B-block. The walkway past the classrooms was roofed and its side was open to the sun. A low ‘barrier’ built of solid white stone with a silver railing running along the top prevented students from falling. Green classroom doors were spaced at regular intervals along the opposite wall. The figure of the sentry started moving towards our end of the walkway, and we could see the shape of a rifle slung over his shoulder. We jerked back around the corner. 

“Has he seen us?” I hissed to Sam. 

“I don’t think so” he whispered. “He’s probably just patrolling.” 

“So are we going to do anything about it?” asked Sarah. “This is the perfect time to get rid of him.” 

Lucas looked at her, startled. 

“Get used to it Lucas” Sarah hissed. “This isn’t a game you know.” 

“I’ll wait until he gets to this corner, pull him round and knock him out.” said Sam decisively. 

“Too risky.” I disagreed. “If he calls out, the other guys will be alerted.” 

He needs to be lured around” Lucas said, thinking out loud. “That way he won’t be alarmed and we can get rid of him before he calls out.” 

An idea was starting to form in my mind (and it had better form quickly, that sentry was getting closer!). 

“I know what we can do,” I said, speaking quickly. “When he gets to the corner, he’ll go around and check the stairs right? Well when he looks around I’ll be standing at the bottom of the stairs and Sarah will be sitting on the floor of the roll-a-door room pretending to be hurt. I’ll ask the guy to help her and when he gets in the room we’ll knock him out.” 

“What makes you think he won’t shoot first and ask questions later?” argued Sam. 

“Sam we’re girls. He won’t perceive us as a threat.” Sarah explained patiently. 

“Yeah, he’ll probably perceive you as fair game” said Lucas, looking serious for once. 

“That’s what I’m counting on Lucas,” I said. “He won’t be thinking about anything else.” 

Sarah had a look around the corner.

“He’s coming!” she hissed. 

“You two go and hide down the bottom of the stairs” I ordered. 

“But how are you going to knock him out? Its too risky” Lucas argued. 

Could he actually be worried about us? 

“Don’t worry, Sarah has a knife and I know Tae Kwon Do. Just move!” 

They obeyed, probably for the first time in their lives. 

“Be careful you two” Sam said, before going down the stairs. 

“We’ll be fine,” I said. 

Hopefully. As long as I didn’t think about it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The stakes start to rise. The kids find out why their school is being held hostage.

Sarah raced down to the roll-a-door room and sat on the floor. She fastened her knife around her forearm under her sleeve. 

“Good luck Kat” she whispered as I moved to the second landing in front of her. 

I just nodded, I was too nervous to talk. Hopefully my acting experience will hold me in good stead. But how were you supposed to act desirable? Lucas could probably give me some tips. I heard the sentry’s footsteps and before I had time to prepare myself, he moved around the corner and stood staring down at me. He looked a bit feral, dirty blonde hair and stubble on his chin. Ice-blue eyes stared at me. He wasn’t very old, only in his twenties. He looked a little nervous, hopefully he was new to this job. Hopefully he wasn’t gay. Before he had time to say anything, I launched into my story. 

“Please sir, could you help me?” I decided to emphasise the helpless innocent female angle. “My friend is hurt, and I don’t know what to do.” 

I turned so he could see Sarah sitting on the floor. She gave a moan of pain, clutching at her foot. 

“How was she hurt?” he asked, still standing there. 

At least he hasn’t shot us, or alerted anyone. 

“She hurt her ankle when we were running away from some men” I improvised. 

I pretended to see his gun for the first time and acted scared. Well, it probably wasn’t acting. 

“Oh you’re not a baddie are you? Please don’t hurt us, I’ll do anything you want!” 

I think my last comment clinched it. The guy moved towards me, smirking. 

“Don’t worry, I’m a good guy. Sure I’ll help your friend, if you help me in return.” 

“Of course” I stammered. “Anything you want.” 

He smiled at me, swaggering down the stairs and catching my arm as he went past. I could feel him trembling slightly. Yuk. We entered the roll-a-door room and he bent down beside Sarah. 

“Now where are you hurt, little girl?” he smirked. 

Jerking my arm out of his grasp, I pushed him over to one side and delivered a swift kick to his head. Before he had time to regain his senses, Sarah let her knife fall into her hand, flicked the blade up and held it to his throat. 

“Make a sound and you die” she said grimly. 

I moved behind him and took his rifle. Taking a deep breath, I smashed him over the head with it as hard as I could. As soon as he went limp I dropped the rifle and put my fingers on his throat. 

“He’s still alive” I sighed with relief. 

I don’t think I could ever kill someone. What we did may be heroic, and in self-defence, but it was ugly. Sarah expertly flicked the blade back in and put it back up her sleeve. She picked up the rifle. 

“You can come up now” she called. 

Lucas and Sam raced up the stairs, stopping in shock when they saw the slumped figure. 

“He’s still alive” I repeated. 

“Pity” said Lucas. “From what we heard, he sounds like a real bastard.” 

“Well if he wasn’t a bastard, we wouldn’t have got this rifle” Sarah replied practically, passing it to Sam. 

“Why don’t I get it?” Lucas complained. 

“We got it, we choose who gets it” Sarah said abruptly. “Right Kat?” 

I think she was a bit worried about my lack of response. 

“Yeah, sure.” I answered. 

I wasn’t in shock or anything. Well not really. I was just wondering if it came to the crunch, could I actually kill someone? I could have easily killed that guy if I had hit him just a bit harder. What Sarah and I did was all instinct, really. We didn’t think about it, we just did it. I don’t know if I want to kill someone without thinking about it. Oh well, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it (to use one of my mother’s expressions). 

“I knew that rope would come in handy” grinned Sam. 

We dragged the guy down the stairs (none too gently), tied him up and left him in the alcove at the bottom of the stairs. He would be found eventually, but at least he was mostly out of sight, which would buy us time. We gagged him using a sock found in the PE bag. It was a used sock too. Sucked in! 

We crept around the back of B-block. Sarah was on scout duty, but she didn’t run into anyone.  We joined her at the top landing of the stairs. Peering around the corner, we could see the doorway of the teacher’s office, where the ‘big master computer’ resided. It was open and we could hear the murmur of voices. 

“We’ll have to get closer” Lucas whispered in my ear, his breath tickling my cheek. 

I signalled to the others, and we crept forward on hands and knees (well Lucas and I did, Sam and Sarah crept forward in an army crouch). We stopped just outside the doorway. Cautiously we peeked in. Whatever we had expected, it wasn’t what we saw. 

Mr O’Malley, our school principal, was sitting on a chair (well as much of him as could fit- he wasn’t a skinny man). A huge muscly guy was standing to one side of him, casually holding an automatic pistol. His blonde hair was in a crewcut, he wore a tight-fitting singlet and a utility belt (and trousers of course). Another guy, with brown hair and glasses was sitting on a chair with a laptop computer on his lap. His dark eyes flicked around, observing everything, and his fingers fiddled with a pen, spinning it around with nervous energy. They both looked impatient. 

A dark guy who looked to be in his forties stood talking to Mr O’Malley. He seemed to be the one in charge, he projected a sense of authority and power. We strained to hear what they were saying and gradually the words came into focus. 

“Come on old man, you’re nearly there” said the guy on the computer. “What’s the last password?” 

Mr O’Malley stayed stubbornly silent. 

“Just let me have a go” the blonde guy burst out angrily. “I’ll get it out of him!” 

The dark guy laid a restraining hand on the blonde guy’s massively muscled arm.

“Calm down Mitch” he said. “He’ll tell us.” 

“We just have to get him drunk again, don’t we Tony?” grinned the computer guy. “He told us enough information about his ‘special’  file then.” 

“What the hell are they talking about?” whispered Sam. 

I shrugged, and Lucas commented,

“Have no idea. Funny to imagine Mr O’Malley drunk though.” 

“It’s probably important” Sarah said. “So listen.” 

My mind was racing ahead. Obviously they needed a password to get into some file. Evidence pointed to it being a school file, since they needed Mr O’Malley to give them the password. But what could be so important in a school file? 

“If you don’t tell us the password, you’re going to lose some more of your students” Mitch said sweetly. 

That touched a nerve in Mr O’Malley.

“How could you shoot innocent children!” he burst out. “You unfeeling bastards!” 

“So the whole school is being held hostage just to get this password?!” Sam whispered disbelievingly.  

“It would have been much easier if you had just told us the first time” continued Mitch. “But no, you had to be a problem, so we had to use some persuasion.” 

“We have to do something” whispered Sam, unslinging his rifle. 

“You can’t!” I gasped, horrified. 

“Why not?” he asked coolly. 

“You can’t kill people, it’s wrong and doesn’t solve anything. Anyway, the noise would bring other guys and we can’t deal with all of them. And they’ll kill Mr O’Malley.” 

I think my last two arguments convinced him, which was a worry. 

“Okay, but I’m keeping it off the safety catch.” 

Oh boy. Talk about trigger happy. We continued listening. 

“I’m not telling you. You’ll just use it to help your organisation.” Mr O’Malley said stubbornly. 

“That was the general idea.” drawled the computer guy. 

“Bloody Mafia” spat Mr O’Malley. 

Mitch cuffed him across the head.

“Show some respect old man.” 

Outside, we were all stifling gasps.

“The Mafia!” Lucas exclaimed. 

Sarah was scanning the guys in the room.

“What are you doing?” I asked. 

“Seeing if I recognise any of my uncle’s friends” she answered. 

Sarah’s uncle was often involved in not so legal activities. He and Sarah were quite close, and as a result Sarah had an interesting education. 

Behind her, Lucas rolled his eyes.

“Here comes the dreaded uncle again!” 

“Shut up we’re trying to listen!” I hissed. 

“We’re going to get this weapon,” Tony said coolly. “With or without your cooperation.” 

“It’s only part of it anyway, it’s no use without the rest of the military files!” Mr O’Malley said defiantly. 

“What the hell are the military doing hiding files in a school!” I whispered to Sarah. 

Shock and comprehension started to show on her face.

“I think I know.” she whispered. 

A million questions must have shown in my face, for she put up a restraining hand. 

“Don’t ask. I have to think it through.” 

I nodded and turned back to the doorway. 

“You will tell us the password or I’ll blow your head off” Mitch threatened, putting the barrel of the revolver to the side of Mr O’Malley’s head. 

“Or the student’s heads, whichever you prefer” laughed the computer guy. 

“Shut up Fraz!” Mitch snarled. 

Fraz grinned annoyingly.

“Just trying to help, big fella.” 

Mr O’Malley tried a different approach.

“How would I know the last password? Why would they tell it to a school principal?” 

“The same reason why they told you the other two” said Tony. “Apart from being a school principal you’re also an ex-military officer.” 

Mr O’Malley’s shocked face mirrored our own.

“How did you know about that?!” 

“We have our sources” smiled Tony. “They wouldn’t hide part of a Top Secret military file detailing a new defence weapon in a school with any ordinary principal, would they?”   

“Mr O’Malley a military officer!” gasped Lucas. 

“It is hard to believe,” I said dryly. 

“The choice is up to you old man.” Tony said coldly. “Tell us the password, or we’ll kill some more kids.” 

Mr O’Malley’s face grew calm, he seemed to reach some sort of decision.

“You’ll kill them anyway,” he said softly. 

And those were his last words.

Suddenly he grabbed hold of the Mitch’s gun, forcing him by reflex to pull the trigger.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids hatch a plan. Lucas and Kat have a short talk about their feeeelings.

The bullet passed straight through his head. I felt like a horse had kicked me in the stomach. I know, I’ve seen people killed in the movies, but I knew it wasn’t really happening. This was real, someone I knew, and it was messy. 

Sarah and I couldn’t stay there any longer. We rushed down the stairs, moving quietly by instinct. We made it behind B-block before our stomachs gave up. We retched onto the grass. Shaking violently, I felt an arm slip around my shoulders. I nearly flinched but stopped myself, and looked around to see who it was. Lucas was looking at me in concern, his face white under the tan. 

“Are you okay?” he asked. 

I was about to snap at him and push away his arm, but I realised that he was shaking too. He wouldn’t have seen anyone killed in real life before either. I saw Sam comforting Sarah, so I figured it was all right, just this once. 

“No I’m not” I choked, letting myself lean against him. He just held me for awhile as I got myself under control. 

Sam and Sarah came over to sit beside us. Sam had his arm around Sarah too. Is this a conspiracy? 

“I can’t believe it,” said Sam soberly. “I mean, we didn’t always like him but he was our principal!” 

“He was brave though, when you think about it” I commented. “He decided to die, to protect the students.” 

I was feeling guilty. I mean, none of the students really liked him, we always teased him behind his back. 

“I never thought he was capable of something like that” Sarah remarked. 

“He stopped them getting the password at least,” Lucas said. “After you girls left, Tony was really laying into Mitch.” 

“Did anything else happen after we left?” Sarah asked, avoiding what we had actually been doing while the boys were still up there. 

“Nothing much. Fraz was going to try and discover the password himself using his computer.” 

I had to ask Sarah, I was burning with curiosity.

“Sarah what did you mean when you said you knew why the military were hiding files at the school?” 

Lucas and Sam looked at Sarah sharply. 

“Okay, well I’ve thought it through and yes I do know.” Sarah said. “You know Pat?” 

The boys didn’t, and I explained that she was Sarah’s aunt, a strong forthright woman in her twenties. 

“Well she used to be in the army, one of their top rifle shooters, and friends with some of the high up officers. One night at a meeting she was asked if she was willing to help test a new military weapon when it was developed. Pat was no fool, she wanted to know what she was getting into so she said she’d think about it and in the meanwhile snooped around a bit, trying to find out more about this new weapon. What she found out shocked her so much that she deserted from the army, refusing to have anything to do with it. It wasn’t because she found out what the weapon was, it was because she found out how the weapon was going to be hidden. Each file of the new weapon was hidden in a different place, and where would a secret weapon be least likely looked for? In a school. Pat was shocked at the danger the military would willingly put civilians in, and tried to convince them otherwise. They wouldn’t listen, so she deserted. One thing she hadn’t told them was that she knew the three passwords needed to access any part of the weapon file. And she told them to me.”

Well, we were all stunned. 

The only thing I could think to ask was:

“Why would she tell you all this?”

 Sarah looked a little embarrassed.

“Well she was drunk at the time and convinced that the file was hidden in my school. But I didn’t believe her, and had completely forgotten about it until now.” 

My mind was already racing ahead, exploring possibilities. 

“He’d be on the network, might cause problems...what did David say about that?...only need about five minutes to save, delete...use office...” 

“What are you mumbling about Kathryn?” Lucas asked, sounding amused. 

“I know how we can get the file.” 

“How?” asked Sam. 

He didn’t seem surprised, he must be getting used to me.

I took a deep breath. 

“Okay, listen carefully. Thanks to Sarah, we know the three passwords needed to access the military file. Since Mr O’Malley knows about the file, it should be hidden on the office network, in the Administration block. If I could get into that file, I could save the file on a disk, delete it off the network and then we’d be the only ones who’d have it!” 

“And then we could give it to the police” said Sam. 

“The local police wouldn’t know about it, we’d be better off giving it to the military.” argued Sarah. 

Lucas looked excited.

“We heard something about that, didn’t we Sam?” 

“What did you hear,” I asked urgently. 

Lucas screwed his face up in an effort to remember.

“Tony said something to Fraz...what was it...he told him to send a message to the military, that the school was being held hostage until they got the password.” 

“Why didn’t you tell us before?!” Sarah exclaimed. 

Lucas looked embarrassed.

“I’d forgotten. You know how you forget something, and then something happens and it jogs your memory? It was like that.” 

Sam shrugged defensively.

“I didn’t really hear that part, we were moving away from the door at the time.” 

“Oh well, we know now.” I said. “Tony sure thinks on his feet, doesn’t he?” 

We all jumped to our feet, ready for our new mission. Suddenly there was an electric crackle, a high-pitched whine, and the sky above us seemed to shimmer. 

“They’ve put on the force field!” Lucas exclaimed.

The force field was put in at the urging of the P&C committee as the school had been plagued with bomb hoaxes. It covered the whole of the school grounds except the Ag plot and the oval. Whenever there was a bomb scare the school would be evacuated to the school oval and the force field activated. If a bomb went off, it would be contained within the force field. Never thought it would be used to trap students within the school though. 

“This will make it a little hard to give the disk to the military” Sarah murmured dryly. 

“The police have probably arrived and they’ve turned it on to keep them out” said Sam. 

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Nothing we can do about it until we get to the office. I may be able to turn it off there.” 

We moved stealthily along the back of B-block, moving to the bottom of the stairs where we were somewhat sheltered from prying eyes. We were facing A-block. 

“Right this is what we’re going to do” began Lucas. 

I was about to complain about his taking charge when I realised that I had been doing it all along, so why was it all right for me to do it and not him? So I shut up.

Lucas pointed to the entrance to A-block in front of us. 

“Sam and Sarah go in that way. Kathryn and I go in the entrance at the other end. That way we can check either end for sentries and reduce the risk of all of us getting caught.” 

Sarah raised an eyebrow at me. I knew what she was thinking- what was Lucas trying to

do, pair us off? But there was no time to argue. 

“Lucas and I will head straight for the office and meet you guys there.” I added as they moved off. 

Lucas and I had to go the long way around to the other entrance, to cut straight across the quadrangle would be too risky. The quadrangle was a wide square of concrete that the school assembled on in the mornings (you’ll probably need the map for this bit). 

“So how come you put us in pairs?” I asked of Lucas, as we crept past the girl’s toilets and entered the canteen area. 

“It’s safer. A girl, and a guy to...” he looked at me and broke off. 

“To what? Protect us, was that what you were going to say?” 

His guilty look confirmed my suspicions. I stopped in the middle of the canteen and faced him angrily. 

“Don’t you ever learn? I thought that even you may have realised by now that we can take care of ourselves! In fact, without Sarah and I you would be sunk. We wouldn’t even be doing this right now, as there would be no one to hack into the computer! We were the ones who took out the sentry, not you, I can’t believe you...you...” 

I broke off, too infuriated to speak. Lucas just stood there, with a stunned look on his face.

Finally he broke into a grin. 

“You’re cute when you’re angry” he chuckled. 

I swung a punch at him but he caught my wrist and held it firmly. 

“How dare you patronise me!” I yelled, trying to pull my arm free. 

Lucas quickly slapped his hand over my mouth.

“Quiet, someone will hear you!” he hissed. 

I kicked him in the shins and he dropped his hand from my mouth with a howl of pain.

“Quiet, someone will hear you” I mimicked. 

Lucas pulled my arm across my body, spinning me around and pulling me against him, so that I was trapped by my own arm. 

“Let me go!” I fumed, trying to break free. 

“I think we need to make some sort of truce” Lucas murmured, his voice sounding amused. 

“Well you started the war,” I said. 

“Why are you always so quick to insult me?” Lucas said, sounding genuinely puzzled. 

“Why are you always so quick to make a move on me?” I retorted. 

Lucas let me go, and I whirled around to face him.

“Is that what bothers you?” he asked. 

“Yes! It makes me uncomfortable.” I answered, feeling a little embarrassed. 

“Why?” 

“What do you mean why? Because...” 

I stopped. I hadn’t really thought about why it made me feel uncomfortable. And since Lucas was being serious for once, I had better answer honestly, I mightn’t get another chance. I thought for a while. Lucas still watched me with those serious dark eyes. 

“Two reasons, mainly.” I finally answered. “One, I feel like you’re mocking me all the time, that you don’t respect me as a person, you just see me as an object. Two, you always act as if you can have any girl you want, and that attitude pisses me off. I’m not the stereotypical girl that swoons at the sight of you, I have a mind of my own- I’m not going to cater to your ego, and act like I’m brain dead in your presence!” 

I didn’t even realise I felt like that, let alone have the guts to say it to Lucas. I felt very vulnerable. I’d given Lucas ammunition for his war, was he going to use it against me?  Lucas was still looking at me, I couldn’t tell what he thought. 

Finally he smiled. It wasn’t one of his usual smirks, it was a genuine smile, lighting up his dark eyes and making him look a whole lot nicer and more approachable. 

“That’s the first time you’ve talked to me like I was a person” he said simply. 

Now that was a revelation. I suppose he was right, in a way. But if I had treated him normally that would have left me open to insults- maybe that’s what he thought too! 

“I’d never thought of it that way” I said honestly. “But I never had the chance to talk to you normally, I was always defending myself against you.” 

I realised he was dodging what I had said.

“Hey! What about all that stuff I said back there? I told you why I was uncomfortable about it, why don’t you explain why you’re always making a move on me?” 

Lucas looked embarrassed.

“I guess I did sort of see you as an ‘object’. But you always acted so superior, it was annoying. You’d give me that look like I was a bit of dirt or something, and I knew if I said anything normal you’d just insult me.” 

“I only did that because you made me feel uncomfortable, it was my only form of defence” I protested. 

He shrugged.

“Well it was fun to make a move on you, it made me feel superior.” 

“Until I kicked you in the stomach” I grinned. 

“Yeah that did surprise me.” 

“So you were only mocking me, you didn’t actually like me or anything?”

I was blushing a little as I said this, but I had to know. 

Lucas was blushing a little too.

“Well, half and half. You didn’t fall over me the way all the other girls do, and it interested me. I may have mocked you then, and didn’t respect you as you said, but I do now. Any other girl would be off her head, but you’re running around, hitting guys over the head with rifles, and taking charge all the time. I always thought you were such a quiet nerdy chick.”   

I laughed.

“Well that’s one way of putting it.” 

I stuck out my hand.

“I won’t give you a hard time any more if you don’t tease me, and we’ll both respect each other as equals. Agreed?” 

“Agreed.” 

We shook hands solemnly.

And no more making moves on me.” 

Lucas grinned wickedly.

“We didn’t agree on that.” 

I was about to protest when I realised something.

“Shouldn’t we be getting to the office?” 

“Shit!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is hacking. 90s hacking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah remember the 90s? When passwords were actual words? And large files were easily contained in a blue floppy disk? ;-)

We raced through the canteen, turned at the boy’s toilets and ran up the covered walkway, stopping at the doorway into A-block. Luckily the office was at our end. We poked our heads around, saw no one, and crossed the corridor into the office just as Sarah and Sam were coming up the corridor. 

“You guys took your time.” Sam commented. 

I avoided Sarah’s gaze. I sure had a lot to tell her, but not what she expected.

“We were being careful,” Lucas said. 

I smothered a laugh. We had been anything but careful when we were running to A-block. 

“So you’ve checked Mr O’Malley’s office?” Sarah inquired. 

His office was directly across from the school office we were in.

“Um, no.” I said guiltily. 

We sneaked across to his office. No one was there. It was weird being in there, now that he was dead. Sarah started rifling through his desk.

“What are you doing?” 

“I’m looking for anything on the military file.” 

I joined her in her search.

“He probably wouldn’t keep anything on paper, but you have the right idea” I said. 

“We’ll need a password to get on the administration system before I can get into the file, and we’ll need the file name of where he’s hiding it.” 

The boys stood watch at the door while we looked. 

“Did you run into anyone?” I asked of Sarah. 

“No.” Sarah looked downcast. “I’ll never get to use my knife.” 

“So where do you reckon everyone who was in the office is?” 

“Upstairs.” answered Sam, from his vantage point at the door. “None of the offices down here are computer controlled, so it would make more sense to lock them in the classrooms upstairs.” 

“And we could hear people moving up there.” Sarah added. 

I pulled at the handle of the drawer at the desk, but it wouldn’t open. 

“Sarah, can you unlock this?” I asked. 

“Sure” said Sarah, moving over to it. 

A few seconds work with her gadget on her knife and I heard an audible click.

I pulled the drawer open. All that was in it was a pad of paper. Picking it up, I rifled through. Phone numbers, calculations, student names and comments...I stopped at a page with two words written on it, neatly in black pen. 

            trupes

            pihsnx 

“I might have something here.” 

Sam rushed over to look curiously at the page with Sarah, while Lucas stayed on guard.

I pointed at the page.

“This might be what we’re looking for.” 

“How do you know?” asked Sarah sceptically. 

“Logic. Look, they’re in a locked drawer, for one thing. They’re not names or comments or anything, they don’t make any sense. They’re on a page all by themselves, they must be important. It’s worth a try, don’t you think?” 

Sam shrugged.

“Anything is worth a try.” 

I pulled a face.

“Don’t show too much enthusiasm.” 

We walked back to the office, and I sat down at the main file server. As I waited for it to load up, I asked Sarah,

“On your way up, did any of the other rooms have a computer?” 

She thought for a while.

“Yeah, Mr Stuart’s office.”

Mr Stuart was the deputy principal, his office was about three doors down. 

“Great, he should have a modem. Do you know how to get on to police web?” 

Sarah nodded.

“As long as he doesn’t have a password to log on to his computer.” 

“You can bypass the main system without using a password and go straight to police web on the school computer, it’s for emergencies” I explained. 

“I’d say this would be a bit of an emergency,” Sarah said dryly. 

I gave her instructions on how to bypass the main system.

“You guys go down and help Sarah, I’ll be okay here.” 

“You sure?” Lucas asked. 

I gave him a smile.

“To be honest, you’d only annoy me, hacking into computers needs concentration.” 

“Do you want the gun?” asked Sam. 

Now that was a big sacrifice for him. 

“No thanks, I don’t think I could use it.” 

Sarah put her hand up her sleeve and pulled out her knife.

“Here, have this.” 

The knife had a ‘garter’ attached to it, so you could fasten it anywhere. 

“Thanks Sarah, I’ll give it back,” I said, slipping it under my trouser leg.

They left me alone, and I turned back to the computer screen.

The screen was blank but for a solitary message: 

Log on: 

Right. This was when I needed Mr O’Malley’s personal password to get into the main system. I looked at the piece of paper. 

            trupes           

            pihsnx

 Oh well, first things first. 

Log on: trupes

#Access denied# 

Damn. Maybe if I tried it backwards. 

Log on: sepurt

#Access denied# 

Okay, try the second one. 

Log on: pihsnx

#Access denied# 

Log on: xnship

#Access denied# 

Well this wasn’t getting anywhere. It looked easier in the ‘The Net.’

I sat staring at the paper, when suddenly it hit me. What if the letters were jumbled up?! Hmm. I’ll go back to the first one. I grabbed a pencil from the desk and started writing on the paper. 

trupes

pesrut

rutsep

tepurs

peturs

petsur

petrus

Petrus 

I think I’ve got something! One of my hobbies is names and their origins. ‘Petrus’ is the Latin name for Peter, which is Mr O’Malley’s first name! Eureka! 

Log on: Petrus

#Access granted# 

Yes!

I accessed the main menu, scrolling through files until I found Mr O’Malley’s personal file.

How did I know it was his? It was called ‘Peter’. He’s an original man, isn’t he?

It makes sense when you think about it, the office ladies probably need to use it or something, and he doesn’t want to make it hard for them.

I looked at his files. None of the names seemed significant, they were mainly references, resumes, student reports- though he’s not going to have a file called ‘military’ or ‘secret’ now will he? Hmm. This file name looked interesting.

enigma.wps 

I clicked on it, and up flashed the message: 

password: 

I think I’ve found it. I typed in the first one Sarah told me. 

password: oracle 

The screen flashed, and up came a second message. 

password: 

These guys sure go in for originality, don’t they? 

password: trojan 

They seemed to like that one too, for up came a third message (guess what it was?) 

password:

I took a deep breath, tried to stop my fingers from shaking. 

password: gatekeeper

#Access granted# 

id: 

Uh oh. What was my id? I almost panicked for a second, but then remembered something. 

id: Petrus

#Access granted# 

How easy! The screen flashed, and up came the file. It was a mixture of unreadable symbols and diagrams. I realised that it was coded. Searching the office, I found a box of blank disks, just what I was looking for. I pulled one out and set to work. 

Five minutes later I gave a yawn, and stretched my arms. Finished. I highlighted the contents of the whole file, and pressed the delete key with a flourish. I grinned, thinking of Fraz’s reaction when he finally cracked the last password and found the file empty. 

I pulled the disk out, and pondered where to hide it. Pulling my shirt out of my slacks, I pressed the disk against my ribs and tucked the shirt back in. Okay, now for the force field. 

Returning to the main menu, I accessed ‘security’.  A menu came up, and I clicked on ‘bombs’. Force field was one of the options, so I selected it, and logged on using Mr O’Malley’s id.

 

********************** 

Back at the head science teacher’s office in A-block, Fraz was hunched over his laptop, fingers flicking busily over the keys. A message started flashing on the top right corner of his screen, and he gave a startled exclamation. 

Tony, who was giving orders to Mitch, turned around.

“Is something wrong?” 

“Someone’s accessed main file server in the admin building! They’re using O’Malley’s id, and they’re trying to deactivate the force field!” Fraz exclaimed. “Should I lock them out?” 

Tony smiled.

“No. Let them think they’re undetected.” He turned to Mitch. “Do you have any men deployed in that area?” 

Mitch nodded.

“Send one to pick up our little hacker and bring him to me.”

 

********************** 

Password: 

I stared at the screen, then at my piece of paper.

 

            trupes

         

          pihsnx

                             trupes

                             pesrut

                             rutsep

                             tepurs

                             peturs

                             petsur

                             petrus

                             Petrus 

Password: Petrus

#Access denied# 

Okay. Try the other word.

I picked up my pencil and did some more scribbling. 

pihsnx

hisnxp

nixphs

niphsx

pinhsx

sipnhx

hipxns 

Come on, you have to get it! I’ve always hated word puzzles, mum was better at them. 

phinxs

spinhx 

Hang on a sec. 

sphinx

Yes!

The sphinx was a great stone lion with a man’s head, depicted in Ancient Egypt mythology. It protected the entrance to tombs and had great powers which he used to stop people getting past. An appropriate name for a force field password.  Mr O’Malley sure had hidden depths. He knew Latin, and he must have known something about Ancient History (one of my subjects). All this knowledge from a principal who was a great lover of the sciences and tended to look down on the English/History/Drama subjects. Maybe he didn’t invent the password. 

Suddenly I heard soft footsteps on the carpet behind me. It’s about time the other guys arrived. 

“Guess what,” I said, turning around. “I’ve cracked...” 

My voice trailed off. It wasn’t the others.

Standing before me was a tall guy with black hair, black jeans and a sky-blue shirt, staring at me with a face totally devoid of expression. 

I was reminded of the time when I had been climbing down from a tree and had put my foot down to where I thought a branch was but my foot stepped into nothing. Or when I had woken up from a nightmare in the middle of the night and heard the voice from my nightmare outside my window. 

It was the sky-blue guy. He had a hand gun stuck in his belt, but hadn’t bothered to draw it out. At least he didn’t have his semi-automatic, or I really would have freaked. But I hadn’t typed in the password yet!

I did the hardest thing I had ever done. I turned my back on him. 

Password: sph 

No!

My wrists were grabbed and pulled away from the keyboard.

He pulled me out of my seat and, holding me against him with one arm, he turned off the computer at the power point. The creepy thing was, he hadn’t said a word or changed expression at all. It was scary. 

Grabbing both my wrists, he started to pull me towards the door. I pretended to resist his pull, then suddenly pushed him forward. While he was off balance, I jerked my wrists up and out, releasing them from his grip. Simple self-defence really. Shifting to right back stance, I launched into a side kick, the same one I used on Lucas. Unfortunately he didn’t fall over. He staggered back, quickly regained his balance and back-handed me to the floor. Ow. Determined to match his verbal diarrhoea, I said nothing. My head was spinning a bit though. And my mouth hurt. Scab. Dragging me to my feet, he pinned my arms behind me and started pushing me out the door. Then I remembered the others. 

“Help!” I yelled, remembering just in time that I shouldn’t mention any names. 

Sky-blue guy continued pushing me along the corridor, past Mr Stewart’s office and out the door that Sarah and Sam had came in. Where were those guys?


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kat is in some trouble.

“Help!” 

Sarah looked up sharply from the computer. Sam, who was standing behind Sarah’s chair, unslung his rifle and held it ready. 

“That sounded like Kathryn!” exclaimed Lucas, who was also standing near the computer. 

“There’s someone coming!” hissed Sarah, jumping out of her seat and moving behind the door. “Get over here!” 

The boys joined her and together looked through the crack between the door and the wall.

Sarah stiffened as she saw sky-blue guy and felt for her knife that wasn’t there.

As soon as they passed the door Sam moved to the open doorway and steadied his rifle on his shoulder. Sarah darted out and grabbed Sam’s arm. 

“Don’t be stupid, you could hit her too!” 

Reluctantly Sam lowered his rifle. 

“What do we do?” said Lucas. “We’ve gotta help her.” 

Sarah thought quickly.

“You boys finish telling the police what we know. I’ll follow sky-blue, my guess is that he’s taking her up to Tony. When you’ve finished, exit the web, and join me up there.” 

“I’ll come with you,” said Lucas. 

Sarah shook her head firmly.

“No. We may need backup if something goes wrong or I get caught, and then we’ll need you guys. Besides, she’s my best friend.” 

She darted out the door before they could argue.

Sam sat down at the computer. 

“You’re just going to let her go?” exclaimed Lucas, still standing by the door. 

Sam raised an eyebrow.

“Ever tried to argue with Sarah?” 

Lucas smiled ruefully.

“I’ve tried arguing with Kathryn, and if Sarah’s anything like her...” 

He joined Sam at the computer.

 

*********************

Sky-blue guy still hadn’t said a word. I had said several things as he pushed me along the covered walkway, none of them printable. My initial fear of him had subsided somewhat, and now I was just concentrating on getting free. I brought my foot down hard on his instep, causing no verbal reaction but his grip on my arms slightly loosened and I was able to get one free. Now that only one arm was twisted behind my back I could do something. Keeping my free arm away from his grasp, I moved forward and twisted out so that my imprisoned arm was now straight and I was facing him. 

Now I had enough room to do some kicking. I snap-kicked him in the chest, pushing him backwards and freeing my other arm. I thought I saw a slight expression of annoyance on his face- what a breakthrough! I decided against going for another kick and turned to run. 

I ran only a few metres before I was crash-tackled from behind, hitting the concrete hard. It hurt. The breath had been knocked out of me and my muscles had gone completely limp. Sky-blue picked me up and slung me across his shoulders, one hand holding my wrists and the other arm clamped over my legs so I couldn’t kick. The only constructive thing I was doing was trying to get air into my lungs. He carried me up the stairs (I was hoping he wouldn’t overbalance as he would probably fall on me) and strode through the doorway of the head teachers office (I nearly hit the doorway on the way in). I had regained control of my body now, and glared at Tony, Fraz and Mitch as sky-blue guy set me down. 

“Well, well, well” said Tony, sounding amused. 

“Three holes in the ground” I thought to myself. 

“So this is our little hacker.” 

Fraz was staring at me in disbelief.

“You’re a girl!” 

I acted surprised, opening my eyes wide.

“I am? How on earth did you know- I’ve been trying to keep it a secret all these years...” 

“And she’s a smart aleck” continued Tony.

He moved close to me.

“So what is your name, girl?” 

I considered not telling him, but decided it didn’t matter- I wasn’t going to get beaten up over my name. It’s a nice name anyway and I don’t mind sharing it. 

“Kathryn Tarlen.” 

Fraz turned to his keyboard, fingers flickering rapidly over the keys. He took his glasses off and fiddled with them absently as he worked. I realised that the glasses were just an affection. What a dork! 

“Got it,” he said. 

Tony moved over to Fraz and looked at the screen.

“Hmm. 18 years old, high academic and musical proficiency...” 

“You’ve got a file on me?” I said disbelievingly. 

“No. The school does.” Fraz corrected smugly. 

I guess that made sense. While they were looking I glanced behind me at the open doorway. No chance for an escape. Sky-blue guy stood behind me near the doorway and when I looked back around I saw Mitch staring at me, one hand resting on his handgun attached to his belt. I gave him a weak grin. That made only two guns in the room, Mitch’s gun and sky-blue guy’s gun. Tony finished looking at my file. 

“Found the last password yet?” he asked Fraz impatiently. 

Fraz smiled confidently.

“Shouldn’t be long now. I’ve set up a program that checks each word in the dictionary against the password. We’ll have it in no time.” 

Tony nodded, and moved back to me.

“Fancy yourself a hacker, do you?” 

How did he know I had been hacking? Fraz must have been connected to one of the programs, I guess. 

“What do you mean?” I asked innocently. 

“You were trying to deactivate the force field,” said Fraz. 

“Was that what it was? I was just trying to find a computer game to play.” 

I didn’t expect my story to deceive anyone, and it didn’t. 

“We’re not stupid Kathryn, so don’t bother us with your little story” said Tony. “What I want to know is, how did you get on to that computer?” 

I said nothing. 

Tony smiled, and gestured to a chair.

“Take a seat, we’ve got plenty of time.” 

The chair he was pointing to was the same chair Mr O’Malley had been sitting in, and I couldn’t suppress my violent shudder. 

“No! Not that chair...” I said, recoiling. 

Tony looked at me intently.

“Why not?” 

I realised my mistake. I shouldn’t know about that chair. 

“Did you see something you shouldn’t have?” asked Tony quietly, watching my reaction. 

His words brought up a graphic picture in my mind of what had happened, and I was surprised to find tears gathering in my eyes. I blinked furiously, determined not to show any weakness. 

“So, you were spying on us” Tony said softly. 

Suddenly we were interrupted by Fraz’s shout of triumph.

“I’m in! The last password was gatekeeper!” 

Tony rushed over to the computer, and as they stared at the screen their triumphant expressions turned to disbelief. 

“It can’t be empty!” choked Fraz, fingers frantically pressing keys. 

I smiled smugly, but stopped as I saw Tony staring at me. He started moving towards me. 

“Search her” he said suspiciously. 

It was time to leave.

I whirled around and lunged for the doorway, spinning into a side kick that would connect with sky-blue’s head. It was halted before it could reach him as Tony grabbed my arms and pulled me backwards. 

“So anxious to leave?” he laughed. 

He turned me around to face Mitch who was moving towards me.

I tried to snap-kick him as he came closer but he caught my ankle and squeezed it so hard that I cried out in pain.

“Try that again and I’ll break it” he growled. 

I struggled against Tony’s grasp as Mitch ran his hands down my back. Finding nothing, he turned his attention to my front. 

“Watch where you’re putting those hands!” I exclaimed indignantly. 

Ignoring me, he slid his hands down my ribs and stopped as he felt the hard outline of the disk. Quickly he pulled my shirt out of my trousers, stuck his hand under my shirt and retrieved the disk. 

“Well look what we have here” he smirked. 

Fraz’s eyes widened.

“Give it to me!” 

Mitch handed the disk over and Tony pushed me over to the computer so he could see.

Fraz opened the file, and displayed its contents on screen. 

“This is it!” he exclaimed excitedly. “It’s coded, but I can crack it easy.” 

“The question is” drawled Tony, “how did a schoolgirl crack the passwords and get hold of it?” 

I grinned weakly.

“Um...lucky guess?” 

Tony pushed me over to the chair and shoved me on it. Moving behind the chair, he grabbed my arms before I could rise and tied my wrists together. 

“It’s question time,” he said, moving to stand in front of me. “And Mitch is rather good at asking questions, aren’t you Mitch?” 

Mitch smiled nastily.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kat's situation worsens, but her sass remains intact. The others attempt a rescue- with varying degrees of success.

“She must have been working with someone else” whined Fraz. “She couldn’t have done it by herself.” 

I was not going to give the others away.

“I did it all myself!” I exclaimed indignantly. 

“How could you? You’re no where near as smart as me” said Fraz arrogantly. 

I raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe not, but I’m definitely more good-looking.” 

I laughed at Fraz’s expression.

“Its not like it’s very hard you know, even the mentally challenged such as yourself could work it out.” 

“How and why?” asked Tony. 

I hesitated, trying to work out what I could reveal to them without telling them everything. Mitch leaned down and slapped me across the face. Hard. 

“Answer when you’re spoken to!” 

I could feel a thin stream of blood trickling down the side of my mouth, but I couldn’t wipe it away. At least my nose hadn’t started itching. 

“I have an aunt that used to be in the military, she was going to test the weapon when it was constructed. She told me the passwords.” 

Truth mixed with lies usually works well. 

Tony seemed to accept my explanation.

“So why did you do it?” 

“You wanted the file.” I said simply. “I didn’t think you were the kind of people who should get it.” 

Tony smiled.

“So you tried to be a hero.” 

I shrugged.

“Seemed the right thing to do at the time.” 

“We’ve got what we wanted,” said Fraz impatiently. “Let’s get rid of her!” 

Suddenly a guy came rushing in the doorway. Phew, saved by the interruption. I stifled a gasp when I saw him. It was the sentry we had knocked out. Maybe not so good an interruption. 

“Where have you been Slater?” asked Mitch angrily. 

Slater saw me and stopped abruptly.

“It was her!” he blustered. “She and her girlfriend knocked me out!”  

“You were overcome by two girls?” Mitch said disbelievingly. 

Tony looked at me with an unreadable expression.

“A friend, do you say?” he said quietly. 

“Yeah, another girl. I’ll go find her for you!” 

He rushed out of the room, anxious to repair his reputation.

Mitch gave me another backhand across the other side of my mouth, and I felt another trickle of blood. Oh well, at least now they match. 

“You lied to us!” 

“Nobody’s perfect.” I shrugged. 

Mitch grabbed hold of my hair, pulling my head back painfully.

“Anything else you want to tell us?” 

“No.” 

Mitch gave a sharp pull on my hair and I gasped with pain. 

“I mean it, there’s nothing more to say! I was just trying to protect my friend!” 

Tony nodded to Mitch and he let go.

“We’ll find out when Slater brings back the other girl.” 

Almost immediately Slater entered the room, pushing a struggling, scratching Sarah. I know you won’t like this description Sarah but you really do fight like a cat. 

“Here’s the other one sir! She was hiding nearby.” 

Sarah saw me and gasped. I guess I must have looked a mess.

“Kat are you okay?” 

I nodded. Painfully.

“I’m sorry Sarah,” I said, affecting a mournful tone. “I was trying to protect you, but now they know there are two of us.” 

Sarah’s eyes widened, she had got my message. They didn’t know about the boys. 

“Did you only see two of them?” Tony asked of Slater. 

Slater nodded. Mitch moved over to Sarah and searched her, but didn’t find anything.

At least they hadn’t found her knife, which was still on me. 

“Let’s kill them!” repeated Fraz impatiently. 

I don’t think he liked me very much. 

“Puhlease, you wouldn’t know what a gun looked like, let alone how to fire one.” I said contemptuously. 

Fraz glared at me.

“Kill her first.” 

“We have no more need of them.” Tony said calmly.

Mitch pulled out his handgun and aimed it at Sarah, while Slater moved hastily out of the way. 

Suddenly all hell broke loose. Sam and Lucas burst through the doorway, Sam holding the rifle. 

“No one move!” yelled Lucas. 

For a second Mitch’s eyes flicked towards the boys and Sarah knocked the gun out of his hand. I saw sky-blue guy reach for his handgun. I opened my mouth to warn Sam but he had already seen. Quickly he swung the rifle around and fired. The bullet went straight through sky-blue guy’s chest. He jerked as the bullet hit him, grunted with pain and hit the ground. I remember thinking that was the only sound he had made the entire time, and had a sudden urge to giggle. Lucas dived for Mitch’s handgun a split second before Mitch did and jumped to his feet with it. 

“Move over there with him” Lucas spat, jerking his head in Fraz’s direction. 

Mitch obeyed, his enormous muscles tensed with anger. Slater scurried over, with a filthy look at Sam. I guess he wanted his rifle back. 

“You too” said Sam quietly, looking at Tony. 

As Tony moved, eyes dark and watchful, I watched Sam. For all his bravado with the rifle earlier, he seemed rather upset now. The hands that held the rifle were shaking, and his face was pale. 

“Sam are you okay?” I asked. 

“Yeah” he said shakily. “I just feel a bit weird.” 

“There was nothing else you could have done” Sarah said urgently. “He was trying to kill you.” 

Sam nodded miserably. 

“How sweet.” Fraz sneered. “He’s got his own support group.” 

“Shut up!” snarled Lucas, taking a step towards them. 

“Ignore it Lucas, he’s doing it on purpose so you’ll make a mistake.” I hissed. 

Sam moved over to them.

“I’ll watch them.” 

Lucas seemed to finally see me for the first time. 

“Kathryn!” he gasped, rushing over to me. “What did the bastards do to you?” 

“I thought it was pretty obvious,” I said dryly. “Would you mind untying me?” 

While Lucas was fiddling with the knots, I looked over at Sarah. 

“Sarah could you get me the laptop?” 

She nodded, and moved over to Fraz, who was sitting on the chair, with Mitch and Tony on either side, Slater behind him. 

“Hand it over.” 

Fraz clutched it protectively. Sam moved the rifle close to Fraz’s head. 

“You heard what she said.” 

Reluctantly Fraz handed it over, and Sarah brought it back to me. Lucas had finally got the knots undone, and I was trying to bring back circulation to my wrists. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, dark eyes looking at me in concern. 

Sarah made a sick face behind him, and I had to struggle not to laugh. 

“I’m fine. I told you I could take care of myself, didn’t I?” 

Lucas looked at my face, which I guessed must look a mess. 

“You have a funny way of taking care of yourself.” 

I shrugged and smiled.

“Why don’t you go and help Sam?” 

Lucas nodded, and holding the handgun possessively in his hand, marched over to where Sam was. 

“I think it was a mistake letting him have the gun” Sarah whispered as she sat down beside my chair. 

I grinned.

“Boys need their toys.” 

I settled the computer on my lap and looked at the screen. He still had the enigma file opened, but hadn’t started decoding it yet, thank goodness. I closed the file, ejected the disk and put it in my pocket. 

“That the disk?” Sarah asked. 

I nodded.

“I didn’t get the force field deactivated before I was caught, but I know the password.” 

Exiting the program, I opened the force field program, which was still active. 

_Password: sphinx_

The irritating whining noise stopped and Fraz looked over at me in alarm. I smiled sweetly. Quickly I exited to DOS, a new idea coming to mind. It couldn’t help chuckling out loud and Sarah looked at me. 

“What?” 

“Watch” I said, and typed

 _format c:_

Sarah began to say something but I held up a restraining hand.

“Look.” 

The screen went dark, then a message came up: 

_This command will delete all applications, programs and files on your hard drive._

_Are you sure? (Y or N)_

Sarah’s laugh added to my chuckle. 

“That’s a classic!” Sarah laughed. “It will wipe everything?” 

“Yep. He won’t be able to do anything on this computer, let alone decode a disk!” 

I pressed the Y key with a flourish, and we chuckled as we saw Fraz’s alarmed expression. 

“What are you doing?” he asked anxiously. 

“Oh nothing.” I said innocently. “Just looking for a game to play.” 

Suddenly (yes, another interruption) a guy came bursting through the doorway.

“Sir!” 

Sam and Lucas glanced behind them. Big mistake. Mitch knocked Lucas’s gun out of his hand and retrieved it, Tony did the same to Sam. 

“Shit!” Sarah hissed. 

“Ditto!” I answered, trying not to sound too worried. 

I was thinking about making a break for sky-blue guy and grab his gun, but he was too far away and it seemed too gross to grab a gun off a dead body. I would have done it though, if Mitch hadn’t started moving towards us with his gun. 

Tony was ushering the boys over to us too, Lucas looked really mad, I hoped he wasn’t going to do anything stupid. The guy had stopped at the doorway and was waiting for someone to notice him. Fraz rushed over to me. 

“I’ll take that” he said smugly, snatching the disk out of my pocket and grabbing his laptop. He took one look at the screen and...well I can’t describe his expression. His face seemed to twist and distort and his eyes looked like they were going to start shooting death rays out of them or something. Suffice to say, he was extremely upset. 

“You...you..” he spluttered. 

I stood up and moved away from the chair. If he was going to get violent, I wasn’t going to take it sitting down. The two boys and Sarah were standing in a little group beside my chair, Mitch guarding them. Tony looked amused. 

“What has she done?” 

“She wiped my hard drive!” Fraz spat. 

He threw it to the floor, and advanced on me with fists clenched. 

“You’re not going to hit me are you?” I drawled, trying to sound calm. “Mitch would have to give you some lessons first.” 

Fraz ran over to sky-blue’s body, and came back with his gun. Uh oh. One of the boys made an alarmed noise, and Sam tried to move forward but Mitch took a menacing step forward, brandishing his gun. 

“No one moves.” 

Tony had called the guy at the door over to him, and was talking to him quietly, one eye on us. Fraz rushed over and clamped his arm around me, pinning my arms to my sides. With his other hand he shoved the gun against my neck. 

“Got anything to say now, you smart-ass bitch?” he snarled. 

Obviously I wasn’t feeling too calm right now, but I wasn’t going to let this snivelling hysterical little sewer rat get the better of me. I looked over at my friends, who were holding their breath, Lucas’s face burning with anger, Sam’s hands clenched in fists and Sarah who was clenching and unclenching her hands, obviously wishing she had her knife. I started to pray, and took a deep breath. 

“You’re an inspiration for birth control, you bottom-dwelling, scum-sucking algae eater!” 

Sarah gave a hysterical snort of laughter. Yeah all right, anyone who’s played Duke 3D will know I got those insults off that (it’s a computer game) but they’re really good, don’t you think? don’t misunderstand me, I’m not trying to be some sort of hero -inside I was freaked- but if I’m going to die, I might as well get some good insults in first. Fraz made some hysterical sort of animal noise. 

“You’re gonna die for that!” he snarled. 

I thought I was going to anyway. Then it hit me -that was another insult off Duke 3D! I started to laugh- okay it was somewhat hysterical- but I couldn’t believe the irony of it. 

“Stop!” a voice rang out. 

It was Tony, moving over to us. 

“What?!!” said Fraz. 

I was thinking the same thing. 

“There are police and military coming,” said Tony, looking a little ruffled. “We’ll need them alive for hostages. A helicopter is coming to pick us up while our men buy us time.” 

Fraz snarled in frustration.

“Well you only have to be alive” he hissed, and swung his gun.

I felt a brief searing pain as it connected with my temple, then darkness overcame me.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Mitch hatch an escape plan.

I had an awful headache. That was my first thought as I opened my eyes. Everything was blurry, I could hear but the sounds were out of focus.

Gradually the images and noises sharpened, and I sat up. We were still in the science office. The guy and Slater had gone. Tony and Mitch were near the door, Mitch talking into a mobile phone and Tony giving orders. Fraz was hunched in a chair, one hand stroking the disk and the other hand holding a gun. I was in a corner far away from the door, with Sarah. A little further along the wall sat Sam and Lucas. Sarah had been staring off into space, and jumped when I touched her on the arm. 

“Oh, you’re awake.” 

“Good to see you too!” I said indignantly. 

Sarah laughed.

“You really look a mess, you know.” said Sarah. 

“So I’ve been told.” I said dryly. 

“I can’t believe you said that to Fraz.” 

I laughed.

“Me neither. It just came out. Appropriate though, don’t you think?” 

“Sam and Lucas think you’re a hero.” Sarah chuckled. “Lucas keeps going on and on about you, and Sam said you were the bravest girl he’s ever met.” 

“He hasn’t met that many girls,” I said, but secretly I was pleased, Sam doesn’t give out compliments much. 

“What’s going on with you and Lucas?” asked Sarah curiously. “You don’t tease each other any more.” 

“We made a truce,” I said evasively. “I’ll tell you later. So bring me up to date. How long have I been unconscious?” 

“About ten minutes. Tony sent that guy and Slater away -Slater got his rifle back- and the police are trying to get to this room. I told them this was headquarters on the web. Tony’s got all these snipers hiding around to keep them occupied, helicopters are circling around but not landing. The police and the military can’t do much at the moment, as Tony has soldiers in various classrooms threatening to kill students if the police get any closer.” 

Sarah lowered her voice.

“Have you still got my knife?” 

I nodded.

“Yep. Do you want it back?” 

Sarah shook her head.

“Too risky. Fraz keeps looking over here.” 

I hesitated.

“Sarah, if we die, I just want you to know that you’ve been a great friend and everything....” 

“Yeah, same to you.” 

Sarah and I weren’t into great displays of emotion.

Sam and Lucas noticed I was awake, and moved along the wall to join us. 

“You all right?” asked Sam. 

I nodded. No one knew what to say to each other, so we all sat in silence.

Suddenly Tony and Mitch moved over towards us. 

“Time to go kiddies” Mitch sneered, waving his gun. 

They moved us out of the room and onto the corridor. 

“Where are we going?” I asked. 

Fraz, who was following behind us, jabbed the gun painfully into my ribs.

“You’ll find out.” 

Now we were outside we had a better view of what was going on. I could hear shooting in the distance, and down below me on the concrete I could make out the forms of police officers and various other people in unknown uniforms, hiding in corners of the playground. They seemed to be shooting above us, and I realised that there were snipers on the roof, keeping both the police and the helicopters above them at bay. I couldn’t see them though, the roof was directly above us.

I was wondering how they got up there, when a rope ladder slithered down. Tony motioned to Fraz, who climbed onto the concrete barrier, hopped onto the rope ladder and climbed up out of sight. 

The police were shouting at us through a megaphone.

“Lay down your weapons. Let the children go and no harm will come to you. Cease your fire.” 

Tony laughed, motioning to me.

“Up you go.” 

I backed away.

“No way.” 

I couldn’t climb onto that narrow barrier, balance on it, and climb up a flimsy rope ladder 15 metres above the ground. My hands started shaking at the thought of it. I’m not afraid of heights, I just don’t like being in grave danger of falling off a narrow ledge and splattering my brains out on the concrete below. I backed into Mitch, who pressed his gun into my side. 

“You’ll go up there or I’ll push you off the side of the building.” 

I shook my head, trying not to show my fear. I don’t think I was successful. Tony started to move towards me but Sam stepped in front of him. 

“Leave her alone, can’t you see she’s afraid of heights?” 

“I’m not afraid of heights, I’m just afraid of falling!” I protested. 

Sarah cracked up. 

“Just don’t look down” Lucas suggested, looking worried. 

Abruptly Mitch moved over to Tony, dragging me with him. He handed his gun to Tony. 

“I’ll take care of it.” 

In one swift movement he slung me over one shoulder, and started to move towards the ladder. 

“Let me go!” I screamed, struggling and kicking. 

Okay so that’s not very original, but they’re the first words that come to mind, trust me.

Sarah tried to move forward to help me (so did the boys, but she was quicker) but Tony had the gun, and guns can be very persuasive in convincing people to maintain their current position. 

“The more you struggle kid, the more likely it is that I’m going to drop you” warned Mitch. 

He climbed onto the barrier and I stopped struggling, hardly daring to breathe as the concrete loomed grey and hard far below me. I shut my eyes, and held my breath. Mitch swayed a little, and the muscled arm that held me firm trembled with tension. 

Sarah said later that it looked like he was going to topple off, but as I had my eyes closed all I could feel was his swaying and then the sudden jolt of his foot as he hopped onto the rope ladder. Climbing with one hand, he reached the top of the corrugated metal roof and dropped me at Fraz’s feet. I was limp with relief, too wrung out even to answer back Fraz as he sneered some insult at me. Mitch hopped onto the roof and stood beside me as the others made their way up. Sarah, Sam, Lucas and finally Tony all joined me on the roof.           

The corrugated metal was hot to the touch and I stood up quickly, looking around me. Snipers were positioned on all sides of the roof, firing on the police below and at the helicopters above us. One helicopter hovered out of range of the police helicopters. 

“Get me the police” Tony said to Mitch. 

He punched in a number and handed the phone over. 

“We have four school children held hostage on the roof.” Tony stated calmly. “I want to see all helicopters gone or we start shooting the children. Oh, and if I see any helicopters following us, we will start lightening the load in the helicopter, woman and children first. Do you understand?” 

The answer must have been satisfactory, for Tony smiled and handed the phone back.

The police helicopters circled the roof and moved away, as the one helicopter landed. 

“Here’s our ride” smiled Tony. 

The pilot hopped out of the helicopter and walked smartly over to us.

“Your helicopter sir” he said. 

He looked around at us.

“Ah, we can only fit in about six, including me.” 

Calmly Tony raised Mitch’s gun and shot the pilot in the chest.

“Now it’s six not including you.” 

I must have gotten tougher, as I didn’t feel like hurling my guts out this time. Then again, he was shot in the chest, which isn’t half as messy as being shot in the head. Even with the pilot dead, there were still too many of us. Fraz must have been thinking the same thing, for he spoke up.

“Tony, there’s still too many of us.” 

Tony looked at Fraz and smiled. Fraz’s eyes widened as he realised his intent.

“No! You need me...”

Apparently Tony didn’t, and he quickly shot Fraz. The disk and the gun tumbled from his hands. 

“No we don’t Fraz, we only need the disk” Tony chided, picking it up and putting it in his pocket. He handed Fraz’s gun to Mitch. 

This was too weird. I looked up at the sky, which was a clear blue, sunlight streaming down...on snipers and dead bodies and helicopters. There had to be a word for this eeriness, this total unreality. At least in movies like Die Hard, it was a dark night or it was raining or something, it wasn’t a sunny afternoon in a school! But of course they had a male hero in a white singlet, who had a gun and a two-way radio. So what were we supposed to do? Buy a white singlet? I chuckled quietly to myself. At least we had a better sense of humour than the male hero (and more hair). 

Tony and Mitch ushered us into the helicopter. Tony sat himself in the pilot’s seat while Mitch stood in the back of the helicopter with us. Mitch picked up the rope that was lying on the floor of the helicopter and gave it to Sam. 

“Tie your friends up.” Mitch said. 

“And if I don’t?” Sam asked. 

Mitch sneered.

“Then I start shooting them.” 

He grabbed me by the hair and pulled me over.

“She would look good with a bullet in her leg, don’t you think?” 

Lucas clenched his fists.

“Leave her alone!” 

Sam walked over to Sarah with the rope.

“Sorry” he said, shrugging. 

“Hands behind backs and feet tied together” commanded Mitch, still holding me. “If the ropes aren’t tight enough then I’ll shoot the girl.” 

Helpless, Sam could only do what Mitch demanded. He tied up Sarah and Lucas, and Mitch pushed me towards him. 

“Tie him up” he snarled. 

Sam gave me the rope and I did as Mitch asked, my hands trembling slightly. I avoided looking at the others, who now lay on the floor of the helicopter. Mitch took the remaining rope off me and tied me up himself. I tried to tense my muscles so the ropes would be loose but he tied them so tightly that it didn’t make any difference. Mitch smiled, happy now he was in control. 

“Now don’t move off the floor kiddies” he sneered, kicking me in the side. 

Yeah sure like we could move. I looked at him contemptuously. 

“Get a life” I hissed, but Mitch was already moving away to join Tony in the co-pilot seat, putting on headphones and picking up two backpacks. He put one on himself, and gave one to Tony who did the same. 

“Are those parachutes?” I asked Sarah. 

She nodded, and a nasty thought entered my mind. What if they planned to jump out and leave us here to crash? I whispered my fear to the others and they stared at me in shock. The helicopter lifted off the ground (we knew that as we were all thrown over to one side of the helicopter), and started flying. It was so noisy that we could talk without being overheard, not that we had anything to say to each other. Oh, apparently Sarah did, for she was nudging me in the side. 

“What?” I hissed. 

“Where did you put my knife?” Sarah asked urgently. 

Aha. An escape plan. 

“Under my left trouser leg” I answered. 

Sarah thought for awhile.

“Okay, you move your leg around to where my hands are and I’ll try to get it free.” 

The boys watched us in silence, Sam keeping a watchful eye on Tony and Mitch.

I did as Sarah asked and felt her hand on my ankle. 

“Don’t tickle!” I protested, trying not to giggle. 

Her hand found the knife and slipped it out of its sheath on the garter. Slowly she felt around the edge and flicked up the blade, narrowly missing her fingers. Moving the blade so that it pointed upwards, she started to saw away at her ropes. 

We watched her silently, muscles tensed and sweat trickling down our faces in the sticky heat. Suddenly the helicopter tilted and Sarah swore as the knife almost fell from her hands, which were slippery with sweat. Carefully she continued sawing, the rope reluctantly parting strand by strand. 

The rope fell to the floor and she quickly untied her feet. We glanced to the front of the helicopter. They hadn’t turned around. I moved myself behind the boys and Sarah started cutting me free. Once free, I put my hands behind my back and tucked my feet underneath me, so if Tony or Mitch turned around they wouldn’t get suspicious. 

While Sarah attended to the boys I started thinking, desperately trying to come up with a plan that would get Tony and Mitch out of the way, but each time I was defeated by the fact that probably none of us could fly a helicopter. Also the further we moved away from the school the less chance we had of finding our way back even if we could fly the helicopter. 

I slumped against the side of the helicopter, tired and exhausted, the adrenalin that had kept me alert gone. I desperately wished that an adult was here to take charge. Someone like James Bond, they’d know what to do. Meanwhile Sarah had freed the boys and moved over to me. 

“Got any ideas?” I asked. 

She nodded. Well I’m glad she did. 

“Pretend to be sick or something so Mitch will come to investigate.” 

I raised an eyebrow.

“This sounds familiar.” 

Sarah grinned.

“Well we won’t stuff it up then, now that we’ve had a practice.” 

Lucas and Sam had been listening. 

“Sounds good.” said Sam. 

“Yep, lure him over here and we’ll get rid of him.” agreed Lucas.

They arranged themselves like I had so that they still looked tied up. Sarah moved over to the side out of the way. 

“What are you doing?” I asked suspiciously. 

She smiled mysteriously.

“Nothing you need to worry about.” 

Yeah sure. Okay time to begin.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Helicopter shenanigans. It's the last chapter, will the kids survive? Will Tony escape with the disk?

I slumped to the floor with my eyes closed, my hands behind me out of sight. 

“Sir sir!” Lucas yelled. 

I smothered a laugh. 

“What?” yelled Mitch. 

“There’s something wrong with Kathryn, she won’t wake up!” 

I heard Mitch getting out of his seat.

“This had better be good” he grumbled. 

Well maybe not from his point of view. His footsteps came closer and suddenly I heard the smack of a fist. Time to wake up. I opened my eyes and saw Mitch, Lucas and Sam fighting. Sarah was creeping up to Tony, her knife raised. He hadn’t realised what was going on, as the noise of the helicopter masked the punches that the boys were dealing out. 

I winced as I saw Lucas cop one in the stomach. I looked for Mitch’s gun, but it had fallen, or was probably kicked, out of his belt and was lying on the floor of the helicopter. I ran over and picked it up, narrowly missing Mitch’s fist as it swung to intercept me. I kicked him in the stomach, sending him staggering backwards into Lucas and Sam. Mitch swung around, and there was a sharp crack as his fist connected with Lucas’s jaw. He hit the floor, unconscious. Sam swore viciously and swung a punch at Mitch, who ducked and slammed his fist into Sam’s face. A second body hit the floor beside Lucas. Uh oh. Mitch turned towards me and I raised the gun. 

“You can just stay right there” I said, voice and hands shaking. 

“You wouldn’t shoot that in here” Mitch snarled, moving closer. 

“I’m going to die anyway. I may as well take you with me!” I yelled, my voice edging into hysteria. 

Mitch must have decided that a hysterical girl with a gun wasn’t to be messed with. He stopped and stood still. 

Lucas stirred, groaned, and sat up. His eyes widened as he took in the scene. 

“Take your parachute off and drop your other weapons” I yelled, deciding to keep the hysterical voice. It seemed to be working well. 

Mitch took off his parachute sulkily and threw it hard at Lucas. He pulled a few knives out of his boots and clothes and threw them at my feet. Lucas ran over and collected them, making sure he didn’t come between me and Mitch. He then dragged Sam out of the way of both of us. 

I glanced at Sarah who had reached Tony’s seat. She put the knife blade against his neck. 

“You are going to turn this helicopter around and take us home.” 

Tony didn’t even flinch.

“Certainly” he smiled. 

Suddenly the helicopter tilted as Tony wrenched the controls, sending Sarah tumbling to the floor, knife falling from her hand. Tony jumped up and opened the door of the helicopter. Wind rushed into the helicopter, making it hard to keep my balance and to breathe. Mitch made a move towards Lucas and the parachute but I managed to regain my balance and point the gun at him.

“Don’t you move!” 

Tony flourished the disk at us, laughing. 

“Have a nice trip down ladies!” he laughed, and jumped. 

We watched him fall, and soon we saw a parachute blossom from his backpack. 

Sarah said several unprintable words, and closed the helicopter door. Already the helicopter was veering out of control, we were going to crash. 

I waved the gun at Mitch.

“Get in the chair and fly us back to the school now!” 

Mitch sneered. “Why should I?” 

Sarah ran over to Lucas, grabbed the parachute, opened the helicopter door and tossed it out.

“Because if you don’t you’ll die!” she said cheerfully. 

Mitch’s eyes widened in disbelief at her action, and ran to the pilot’s seat. 

Sam began to stir as I handed the gun to Sarah.

“I need a break, can you take over for a bit?” 

“Sure, as long as you save me some of those knives.” 

I grinned and nodded, Sarah stood behind Mitch with the gun pointed steadily at his head, but at a safe distance. 

 

********************* 

We were knocked to the floor as the helicopter hit the oval with a jolt. 

The door of the copter shot open (not literally) and the police swarmed in, one turning off the copter. Mitch was handcuffed, we were herded out and told to head back to the admin block for questioning. They didn’t say anything about the disk, so I figured they didn’t know about it. I doubted Mitch would spend much time in police custody once the military learned of it. We walked across the oval, all of us with one injury or another.

I think I looked the worst, with bruises and blood all over my face from Mitch’s questioning, with Sam coming in a close second. His face was covered with blood from where Mitch had hit him. Hey, how come Mitch gets to do all the dirty work? 

As we reached the end of the oval two men in uniform stood waiting for us. 

“Military” whispered Sarah. 

“But we don’t have the disk” Lucas said, looking downcast. 

I smiled secretly to myself.

We reached the men and stopped. 

“Yes?” I said. 

They weren’t going to intimidate us. 

“How are you feeling?” one of them asked, a stocky dark man, with piercing blue eyes. 

The other guy, a brown haired man with average nondescript features, just watched. 

Sarah raised an eyebrow.

“How do you think we’re feeling?” 

He ignored the comment and continued.

“At any time during your ordeal did you happen to notice a disk that they had?” 

“I’ll make it easy for you” interrupted Sam. 

Sam taking the initiative?

“We know about the disk, we know what’s on the disk, Kathryn accessed the file and we know what’s in it. Tony took it with him when he jumped so no we don’t have it. Any questions?” 

“Good work” Sarah whispered. 

The men looked taken aback.

“Oh.” 

“I must say I don’t think much of your policy of hiding military files in schools” Sarah drawled. “Serves you right that the Mafia got it.” 

The men looked even more taken aback. This time they didn’t say anything. 

I decided it was time to butt in.

“The disk isn’t lost actually.”

Everyone looked at me. Now this was a captive audience. 

“The disk that Tony took was a false disk. I made two copies of the file, one which I altered, substituting symbols in place of the code- it was easy to replicate the code- so that it would mean nothing when decoded. The other one, the real disk, is still here.”

My friends looked both hurt and angry. 

“Why didn’t you tell us?!” Sarah yelled. 

“I couldn’t, I had to make them believe that it was the right disk and I couldn’t risk any of you making them suspicious by your reactions.” 

“Where is the disk?” asked the dark-haired guy urgently. 

“First you have to promise some things.” I said, crossing my arms. 

By the look on their faces, it appeared that I surprised them again. 

“How dare you! You are just a schoolgirl, what makes you think you can demand anything from us?!” blustered the brown-haired guy, deciding to enter the conversation. 

“You want the disk, don’t you?” 

The brown-haired guy stepped forward, fists clenched.

“We’ll make you tell us...” 

Sam and Lucas stepped in front of me.

“Come any closer and we smash your faces in.” Lucas said. 

“Besides, do you want the media to know how the military treats helpless children?” Sarah added sweetly. 

“What do you want from us?” asked the dark guy. 

“A promise that you will never hide any military files in any school again. And any files still hidden in schools are to be removed.” 

I saw brown-haired guy grinning and added;

“Of course, this promise will be made in writing and by your highest in authority.” 

He stopped grinning.

“And you won’t get the disk until we have that promise in our hands.” Sarah interrupted quickly. “I’ve come across military promises before and they seem to be conveniently forgotten when it the situation suits.” 

I felt relieved, my friends seem to have forgiven me and were backing me up.

“What experience could you have had with the military?” the brown-haired guy sneered. 

“My aunt was in the army.” 

“Take us to your highest in authority now” I ordered, before he could question further. 

“Take me to your leader” Sarah whispered to me in an alien voice, and the men looked back at us with raised eyebrows as we cracked up. 

The men started walking up and we followed. 

********************* 

We entered the office in the admin block, the men following. The piece of paper with the written promise sat in my pocket. I smiled to myself. Little did they know that we planned to leak it to the media so that there was no way they could go back on that promise. 

“Where is it?” asked the dark guy. 

“Right here” I said, pressing the eject button on the disk drive of one of the computers, one I hadn’t been working on when sky-blue caught me. 

He grabbed the disk eagerly and slid it into his pocket. 

“Can we go get cleaned up now?” I asked. 

We had been to Canberra and back, but all we had received was a quick toilet stop and a bit of food. It was night now, the students had gone home to their worried families, and police were busy cleaning up and trying to comfort the grieving families of the dead. Sam’s sister was okay and so were my brothers. Our families had been told we were being questioned and rewarded for the bravery and resourcefulness we had displayed in the face of overwhelming danger. Questioned yes, rewarded, no. The media were out of their minds trying to find us for a statement, but we had been kept out of their way. Oh well, they’ll be getting plenty of good stuff from us later. 

The men nodded.

“You may go home now.” 

“Oh you’re too kind” murmured Sarah. 

We walked out of A-block and sat in thoughtful silence on the library ramp, watching police clean up. 

No one was in any hurry to go home, to face families who would be sympathetic but would not understand. We had grown so close during this ordeal that no one wanted to leave that feeling behind. We had all worked together, found out more about each other, thought fast, and had got some good insults in. The best thing that had happened for me was that Lucas and I had made a truce. He now respected me as a person. Actually the best thing was that we got to be heroes. It was hard, ugly, frightening and painful but it had been worth it. 

I looked at the walkway, where Sarah, Sam and I had been walking that afternoon, when it had all started. 

“Full-circle.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end. One of the only stories I managed to finish at high school, so I have a soft spot for it. Did you guys like it? I love kudos and comments!


End file.
